Digifone restores inland lighthouse as mobile communications installation

ONE of Ireland's oldest follies, an inland lighthouse outside Kells, Co Meath, has been restored by Esat Digifone as a telecommunications installation.

The 100 ft Tower of Lloyd, originally built as a folly in 1791 by the Marquess of Head fort, now bristles with mobile phone antennae both inside and out.

Kells Urban District Council, which owns the famous landmark, granted planning permission for its restoration and development last October. The chairman, Mr Michael Allen, was present for its relaunch at the weekend.

Esat pays rent to use the tower as a base station and this revenue has already funded the installation of a children's playground on the site - a gesture which seems calculated to demonstrate that there are no health risks.

In many areas, there has been considerable controversy about the installation of mobile phone antennae, both by Esat Digifone and Telecom Eireann.

The issue has even become, a major theme of Glen roe, RTE's rural soap.

Without making use of the Tower of Lloyd, Esat Digifone would have required three other sites in the area to guarantee consistent coverage for its mobile phone subscribers in Co Meath and, particularly, along the N3 main road.

According to the company's joint chief executive, Mr Barry Maloney, the restoration "high lights Esat Digifone's colocation commitment - we maximise the use of existing structures rather than build masts from scratch".

The scheme was supervised by Dublin based architects O'Dea Moore, who also designed a new enclosed viewing balcony, which is accessible to visitors via an internal circular staircase. It is open to the public during the summer.

Most of the telecommunications equipment has been installed in a new lantern on top of the tower, but there are also antennae on the tower's exterior which have been specially coated to weather at the same rate as the stonework.

Esat Digifone's Norwegian partner, Telenor, has considerable experience of developing methods to camouflage telecommunications antennae in urban and rural landscapes, including backdrops, screens and colour schemes.

"The Tower of Lloyd is a remarkable example of how an existing architectural landmark can effectively be used as an aid to 21st century technology without compromising historical or aesthetic elements," Mr Maloney said.